2 Mr. J. C. W. Kershaw on 



ally replacing the old. The plants they seem specially to 

 affect are various species of bamboo, lichee, Stillingia 

 sebifcra and a species of bur-marigold, Bidens pilosa, repre- 

 sented in the drawing. This latter is a very common 

 plant here, possessing bunches of spiky seeds with branched 

 ends armed with microscopic spines pointing downwards, 

 which catch in every imaginable thing that touches them. 



The $ butterfly, after almost interminable dancing up 

 and down and wandering hither and thither, finally alights 

 after two or three attempts in the midst of the Aphides 

 and ants, which she thrusts aside with a brushing move- 

 ment of her tail, immediately laying a single egg. She 

 then generally moves slightly and remains for some time 

 sucking up the exuding juice of the plant; both $ and $ 

 are very fond of it : half-a-dozen may occasionally be seen 

 close together on one leaf or stem, drinking this sap, 

 thrusting their tongues into any interstices left by the 

 Aphides. The ants do not appear to meddle either with 

 the butterflies or the eggs, though ants are very destructive 

 to eggs of most butterflies, and I have just recently seen 

 two butterflies (a Hesperid and a Neptis) seized by the 

 tongue as they probed a flower, and dragged off by this 

 same species of ant. Nor do they seem to interfere with 

 the larvse. Probably they are too much occupied in 

 drinking the sap to trouble about eggs, etc. 



The egg is circular and flat, of a pale green, ringed cir- 

 cumferentially, the edges of the rings milled like a coin. 

 It hatches in four days, the issuing larva being nearly 

 cylindrical at first, not assuming its slug-shape till a later 

 stage. It is light yellow, with a distinct purplish dorsal 

 line, and a few light-coloured hairs chiefly at head and 

 tail, the head dark. Later on it becomes limaciform, yellow 

 or greenish-yellow and banded longitudinally with purple- 

 bi'own, the segments well-defined, the first segment swollen 

 and produced, so that the head can be withdrawn entirely 

 into it, as it usually is when the larva is resting. 



The larvae feed on the Aphides, sometimes pressing them 

 against the plant with head and forelegs, sometimes hold- 

 ing them in the forelegs quite away from the plant. A 

 few bites disposes of an Aphis, and the larva then licks 

 and cleans its legs, just as a Mantis does. Some Aphides 

 must have a better flavour than others, as the larvse pick 

 and choose, moving their heads up and down over the 

 backs of the insects, evidently smelling them. As a rule 



